The Devil’s Bridge is the second full-length from Belgian Black Metal Kvlt Lvthn after a handful of splits and demos, including an EP, The Spider Goddess (2017), and their Eradication of Nescience debut full-length from 2016. This is a genuinely good Black Metal album. Its direction is clear, each foot stuck solidly in the 1st […]

I don’t know what YOU expect from a project that consists of  Brian Kingsland (Nile, Enthean), bassist Alex Rush (Olkoth, Enthean), and drum legend Derek Roddy (ex-Hate Eternal, ex-Malevolent Creation, ex-Divine Empire, etc). But I know what I was expecting it to sound like, and it sounds exactly like that. Yeah, this debut is blistering blackened […]

I was trying to think of the perfect album to describe how my morning was going. I scrolled down and back up, looking at what I have, and I remembered that El Jefe had sent me the 20-minute reissued LP from these guys, them being Organ Dealer, and the album is Visceral Infection. This motherfucker […]

Paradise Lost needs no introduction. And unless you have lived under a rock for 30 years, you are bound to be aware of their vast history and legacy, transforming from a pure death doom band, being part of the UK 90s Doom trinity along with My Dying Bride and Anathema, to a Gothic metal act, […]

I recently covered a raw as fuck Black Metal album from Embers of Ouroboros, and now I have yet another incredibly raw, but better album than the Embers of Ouroboros. I’m talking about Blutsauger and their blistering debut full-length, Nocturnal Blood Tyrants. This album kept me company all day, it shredded my eardrums and froze […]

Shadows is an up-and-coming German blackened death thrash metal band, and outside of a demo from 2022, Miseria is their first official release. 9 songs in 48 minutes with a classically named song in the occult realm – “As Above so Below”. No fancy intro, just a robust organic production. There are some nods to […]

When I see ‘For Fans of Bal-Sagoth!’ in a promotional email, I’m usually pretty skeptical. Only a few bands have been able to honor/copy that unique sound: Hungary’s Runeshard, the Alestorm spinoff, Wizardthrone, and, of course, the UK’s Kull, but they have actual former Bal Sagoth members, so I’m not sure they count. However, the […]

Novembers Doom missed a significant opportunity to release Major Arcana in November, but we’re getting it in September instead. In my neck of the woods, it’s already starting to get cooler, so it’s just as well. If you didn’t know, it’s unlikely I will be unbiased in this review because the band is one of […]

I kinda feel like I’m getting punked here at this point. Listen, I’m not naive. I didn’t come into Borderlands thinking that, just because the Under the Red Cloud/Queen of Time/Halo trilogy of album was wrapped up, that this new Amorphis record was suddenly gonna sound VASTLY different. The band has more or less been sticking to their distinct formula […]

Back in 2023, an album was released that I absolutely loved. It was Khnvm’s Visions of a Plague Ridden Sky, and not only did I review it in these hallowed pages, it also made it onto my year-end list (shocker). Fast forward to 2025, and they are back with another bludgeoning album in the form […]

Visitant is a new Technical/Progressive Black Metal project formed by Voraath (RIP Joshua Ward) vocalist Chelsea Marrow, who you may know from her voice being used on The Doom Eternal and Senua: II Hellblade video games, as well as Anthony Lusk-Simone (drums/orchestration) from Abiotic, Kilian Duarte (bass) also from Abiotic and Scale the Summit, and […]

Barbarous is a new death metal band out of California. They released a two-song EP last year, Coup de Grâce, as a precursor to their debut album, and both those songs reappear on this album – Initium Mors. Eight songs in 29 minutes and all encapsulated in a fun album cover equipped with a neat […]

Listen, I strive to be as objective as possible when writing reviews, providing an unbiased opinion where I can to guide you, good reader, in the right direction and help you spend your hard-earned money wisely. But if you have read my reviews before, you know I am one: A huge fan of the blackened/symphonic […]

As I stated in my review of the excellent Obšar EP, I love receiving unsolicited, blind requests from obscure, completely unknown (to me) bands for us to review their material. So when I got an email from Moscow’s Renunciation, asking us to cover their second album, Make Babylon Great Again, I checked the band’s music […]

The promotional email for the sophomore effort from this Danish act (named after the Hebrew word for wanderer?) stated it was melodic black metal for ‘fans of Behemoth, Hate, Mgla, Belphegor, Anaal Nathrak’. Not sure I could have been lured in any harder if they had a six pack of IPA beer, Crunchie candy bars, […]

I learned a new word today, “effulgence,” as in Pain Effulgence, the new album from Innumerable Forms. All you nerds probably already knew that it’s at odds with the first word in the album title, as I don’t consider pain luminous or radiant. If it works for the band, it works for me, but their […]

If you don’t know the name Darren Cesca, you certainly know the bands he has drummed for over the years: Pillory, Arsis, Goratory, Incinerate, In Asymmetry, Serpent of Gnosis, Deeds of Flesh, and what was a surprise to me, the 2006 Burn In Silence album, Angel Maker– a metalcore album drenched in keyboards. Here is […]

Thorn – the one man wrecking machine of doom/death metal returns with the fourth album Nebulous Womb of Eternity. I have enjoyed all the prior releases, although at times, the production can get a tad muddy. “Ooze Maelstrom” starts this seven-song 37 37-minute onslaught with a blast beat. I was not expecting the opening to […]

It’s no secret that I love Helloween. They were the first German Power Metal band I ever heard, way back in 1986, with their amazing Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 album. I was a hooked fish at that point. Power and majesty have always been the cornerstone of any Helloween album (well, maybe […]

It’s no surprise that I love Panzerchrist as much as I do. Their core sound has remained consistent throughout their storied career. Each album has stood as a testament to their brand of brutality that has remained solid since 1999’s Six Seconds Kill. Maleficium Part 2 is the follow up to last year’s Maleficium Part […]

Imperial Crystalline Entombment hail from Waldorf, MD, and is the brainchild of Ron Vento from Aurora Borealis, who also owns NightSky Productions and is a well-known name in extreme metal for his recording and production qualities. Abominable Astral Summoning is the newest and third creation for I.C.E. Ron provides all the instrumentation, while Mike Hrubovcak, […]

Despite its name, death metal never dies. It’s always relevant but has had a resurgence over the last few years with a crop of newer bands bringing forth the corpses of the past, along with established acts doing the same. There’s no substitute for the old-school sound championed by Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and the […]

Crungus (a name given to an AI-generated creature – I’ll let Wikipedia explain this one further) is a Texas-based death metal band that happens to feature a former writer for this very site, Kris Allred, who performs bass here on the band’s second album, their first on a label. So now that’s out of the […]

Sweden’s most consistent bunch of Vikings need no introduction. Unleashed have been stalwarts of the scene since Johnny Hedlund was booted from Nihilist back in the late 80s. It worked out pretty well for him because 36 years later, Unleashed are poised to release Fire Upon Your Lands, their 15th full-length album. Hot off the […]

Oh man, this shit right here is fire. Denver’s Victim of Fire has been around since 2016, and this is their third album. They describe themselves as ‘Stadium Crust’, whatever that is. But what I’m hearing is an utterly nostalgic throwback to the early second wave of metalcore, when Maiden, At The Gates, and dual […]